Position in chronology
OSP 2, 085
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P216239.
Transliteration
2(gesz2@c) 3(asz@c) szum2 [kab2-ku5] sza3-ga-ni GAN2 igi-nim-ma 4(gesz2@c) 2(ban2@c) ur-tir GAN2 en-zi-kalam-ma 3(u@c) 2(ban2@c) kab2-ku5 lu-lil-la 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 2(ban2@c) sag-dingir-tuku 2(u@c) 2(ban2@c) kar-sa6 2(gesz2@c)#? 2(ban2@c) ne#-sag GAN2 banda3 3(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 3(ban2@c) <<la2 3(ban2)>> la2 3(disz) sila3 lugal-iti-da GAN2 igi-nim-ma-tur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 085. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P216239) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P216239..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.